LAPD Won’t Return Burglary Victim’s Magazines And Ammo

On Sept. 5, while poker player, Instagram personality and gun-rights advocate Dan Bilzerian was in New York, thieves broke into his Hollywood Hills mansion and made a beeline for the steel-reinforced room containing Bilzerian’s impressive gun collection. Their failed attempts to get inside triggered the alarm system, alerting LAPD and prompting the burglars to flee empty-handed. Bilzerian’s aides denied responding officers entry to the room, but they broke in anyway, and confiscated nine guns, magazines and ammo.

Bilzerian committed no crime, and his security measures successfully prevented thieves from accessing the guns. Still, his firearms were held without a warrant until last week, when, as the Washington Times reported, they were finally released—without the ammo and magazines. According to Bilzerian, “They couldn’t explain what happened to the magazines” and refused to release the ammunition.

LAPD has refused to comment, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely that Bilzerian’s property will be returned. We’ll keep you posted.

How “Smart” Is A $200 Pistol Magazine?

With so-called “smart gun” technology floundering, mainly due to the poor quality of currently available firearms, inventors are turning to other ways of integrating technology into already perfectly functional firearms.

According to a poorly headlined story on Bloomberg.com titled “Clipfort Biometric Ammo”—the story is actually about magazines, not ammunition—an Israeli company named Clipfort is moving forward with production of sensor-equipped magazines for AR-15 rifles and many pistol models that require fingerprint identification to load ammunition. According to the report, the sensor on the bottom of the magazine is programmed at purchase to match the owner’s print.

Aside from the fact that it seems this technology would be simple to bypass by anybody who understands magazine function, and setup at point of purchase seems very problematic, the Clipfort mags are expected to cost $150 to $200—seven to eight times the price of a typical Glock magazine and nearly 20 times that of many AR magazines.

The “Gun Violence Epidemic” Doesn’t Exist

Just as anti-gun activists fly the banner of “public health” as a justification for do-nothing gun control legislation, they also like to invoke the language of plague to describe violence committed with firearms. More and more publications speak without qualification of the “mass shooting epidemic” (a term we’ve already shown to be debunked) and the less specific “gun violence epidemic.”

One problem that occurs whenever you talk about “mass shootings” is that you have to define what one is, and anti-gun activists like to lower the threshold to inflate the numbers. But since there is less room for disagreement over what constitutes “gun violence,” this claim is even easier to reject given the ample evidence we have. A recent op-ed in the Daily Signal lays out the case against “epidemic” claims: FBI statistics show a steady drop in violent crime rates over the last 20 years. Yet gun ownership has been rising during the same time period—hardly an “outbreak” scenario.

Wisconsin Governor Signs Gun Bills Into Law

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed into law on Wednesday a pair of bills that relate to concealed carry. Assembly Bill 75 allows nonresident active military personnel stationed in the state for more than a year to apply for a concealed-carry permit. Previously, permits were available only to state residents.

A second piece of legislation, Assembly Bill 77, simplifies the application process for former police officers who worked in other states. Under the old guidelines, former officers had to return to their departments for annual qualification. Now, they can file an application through the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

Walker also signed a third bill, Assembly Bill 220, designating that felons found with a gun would have to be sentenced to a minimum of three years in prison. Those using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime would receive at least eight years.

Four Educators’ Groups Try To Stem The Campus Carry Tide

With more states opting not to restrict legal concealed carry on college campuses (or to lighten current restrictions), educators who fear an increased presence of firearms in the classroom are scrambling to obstruct the movement. Now four national groups—the American Association of University Professors, the American Federation of Teachers, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges—have banded together to present a unified front against further campus-carry legislation.

“College campuses are marketplaces of ideas, and a rigorous academic exchange of ideas may be chilled by the presence of weapons,” the groups wrote in a joint statement reported by Fox News. Of course, students who carry guns to class with bad intentions will not be deterred by laws to begin with—and as we have seen, academic discourse is much more “chilled” when a shooter has free reign of a campus full of defenseless people.

Chattanooga Father Fends Off Second Home Invasion In One Week

Three days after being awakened by burglars breaking into his home, and two days after buying a handgun, a Chattanooga father used that handgun Thursday morning to stop a home invasion and attempted armed robbery in his bedroom, according to press reports.

Security cameras recorded video of four masked men breaking into the home of Andrew Buckland of Hixson, Tenn. Two of the men proceeded to the couple’s bedroom, where they sprayed Buckland in the face with mace, threatened him with a tire iron and demanded money. At the time, the Bucklands’ 6-year-old daughter was asleep in a nearby bedroom.

Following the suspects’ demands, the couple got down onto the bedroom floor. From there, Buckland was able to retrieve his handgun, which sent the suspects fleeing uninjured but empty-handed. Buckland believes the same crew may be responsible for a string of other crimes in the neighborhood. No suspects have been arrested yet.